Early Photography of China Collection: A highly important collection in development.. Various places, 1850s-1930s

The most valuable collection of early China photography in private hands, the Early Photography of China Collection includes the greatest masterworks of China photography by the foremost photographers working in China in the nineteenth century and the first quarter of the 20th century. The collection has been assembled over the course of many years, and we continue to expand and refine it as worthy photographs and archives become available. This collection, unrivaled in quality and extent in private hands, provides a unique opportunity to own one of the greatest collections of Chinese photography extant. We are eager to acquire important China photographs, from individual objects to albums and collections. We invite you to contact us.

Collection in development

Magnificent Album of Mammoth Photographs of the American West, with other subjects. various, ca. 1865-1880s

This magnificent American West photograph album contains an astounding 21 mammoth photographs by leading photographers including Carleton Watkins, Charles R. Savage, and Isaiah West Taber, as well as other important photographs.

$350,000

Ambrotype Portrait of John D. Rockefeller. Cleveland, Ohio: Wiliam C. North, c. 1857-1858

This famous portrait of John D. Rockefeller at age 18 is the earliest known photograph of the greatest titan of American business and industry.

$150,000

Animal Locomotion: An Electro-Photographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movements. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1887

First edition of the horses of Animal Locomotion. This is a rare complete set of the horse photographs of Muybridge’s masterpiece, a landmark in the history of art and technology. It was Muybridge’s photographs of horses in motion that brought Muybridge international renown.

$150,000

An extraordinary collection of photographs of Central Park by its first official photographer. New York, 1862

Pioneering photographs of Central Park. One of the earliest photographers to work in New York

$135,000

Photographs of the Holy Land comprising the following volumes: [I:] Sinai and Palestine; [II:] Lower Egypt, Thebes, and the Pyramids; [III:] Upper Egypt and Ethiopia.. London, Glasgow, and Edinburgh: William MacKenzie, [1862]

A handsome set of Frith’s photographs. This edition’s gold-toned photographs are preferred over the earlier editions for their “stronger quality” (Gernsheim).

$42,000

Dog Woman – Cheyenne (plate no. 668, Vol. 19). Curtis, c. 1930

This stunning glass photograph, Dog Woman – Cheyenne (plate no. 668), was prepared for the printing of Curtis’s The North American Indian. The glass interpositive is a rare survival used for publication of Curtis’s monumental work.

$35,000

Original glass plate photograph, Hopi Woman, prepared by Curtis for the printing of The North American Indian.. This portrait, titled Hopi Woman, was published as a photogravure in The North American Indian, volume 12, plate 411.,

This is a splendid original glass plate made for Curtis’s The North American Indian, the greatest photographic work on Native Americans.

$35,000

The Original Big Tree, 32 feet diameter. Charles Weed, 1864

Mammoth albumen print (15 ½ x 20 in.), mounted.

$35,000

The Temple Mount, Jerusalem. Jerusalem, 1857

This landmark two-part view of the Temple Mount is one of the very earliest multi-part panoramic photographs of Jerusalem.

$32,000